YuMe Q3: Programmatic Build-Out a 'Methodical' Process

You might not say programmatic's a pipe dream for YuMe, but it's certainly not a material revenue contributor (yet). YuMe, which dabbles in both video and data science, helps brand advertisers extend television buys to digital. It first jumped into programmatic video with a release of Video Reach last March.

While YuMe's CEO Jayant Kadambi claimed YuMe remains primarily a direct-sold business, he said the company is building out its automated sales channels "methodically." He called automated supply and demand channels a "complement" to YuMe's direct sales efforts, although the programmatic business is still "immaterial" to the company's revenue.

Revenue in the third quarter was $43 million, a 19% increase YoY. YuMe tallied 474 advertisers in the quarter, a 41% increase YoY from 336. However, it's worth noting average revenue per advertising customer was down 16%, which YuMe's CFO Tony Carvalho attributed to the onboarding of new customers and subsequent smaller-scale campaigns to start.

Analysts on the Q3 call inquired about YuMe's executive appointment strategy, hiring Collective's head of platforms and corporate development Hardeep Bindra as COO and promoting Carvalho from interim to full-time CFO. YuMe's former CFO Tim Laehy stepped down in May, when he became Livefyre's CFO.

And longtime head of marketing Ed Haslam also moved on this summer as SVP of marketing at PlaceIQ. Kadambi said Bindra will be responsible for scaling YuMe's new programmatic operations, and will "continue to drive operating leverage in this business model going forward."

He alluded to a continuous investment in "opportunistic hires" from the TV sales side, particularly in local TV markets. "Brand advertisers [see] large potential for using digital as a complement to TV spend," he said. "We’ve been judiciously hiring in that area." One such brand is consumer packaged goods company Conagra, which recently began matching in-store sales data with household addressability for multiscreen campaigns using YuMe and Nielsen Catalina Solutions.

Separately, a number of other video ads platform players are addressing similar brand challenges in digital video. In a rough comparison, TubeMogul had revenues of $28.7 million in its first quarter as a public company (advertiser spend running through its platform was $61.1 million) and has developed a number of brand-focused buy-side tools and a digital GRP product. Tremor Video, which did $43.7 million in revenue last quarter, is ramping up the roll-out of an All-Screen brand tool.